Exclusive Marketing Strategy of SoftBank – With STP Analysis and Campaigns

Updated on: Jan 2, 2023
marketing strategy of softbank - featured image

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My name is Aditya Shastri and I have written this case study with the help of my students from IIDE's online digital marketing courses in India.

Practical assignments, case studies & simulations from Harvard Business Review helped the students from this course present this analysis.

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We have in-depth knowledge of the marketing strategy of Honeywell in our prior article. We will expound on the marketing strategy of SoftBank in this piece and provide a thorough analysis of it.

This article aims to dig deep into the growth of the Japanese multinational company SoftBank.

Without marketing, a company might struggle mightily in its industry. It is also essential to compete because the entire world is transitioning to digital. Check out IIDE’s Free MasterClass on Digital Marketing 101 taught by our founder and CEO, Karan Shah, if you are interested in learning the fundamentals of the field.

We’ll aim to go over every aspect of the marketing strategy of SoftBank.

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About SoftBank –

marketing strategy of softbank - softbank logoSource – Business Wire

With its headquarters in Minato, Tokyo, SoftBank Group Corp. is a Japanese multinational holding company with a concentration on investment management. The Group primarily invests in businesses involved in the financial, energy, and technology sectors. It also manages the Vision Fund, the largest venture capital fund in the world with a technology concentration, with over $100 billion in funding. Middle Eastern sovereign wealth funds are among the investors in funds.

Masayoshi Son, the company’s contentious founder and main stakeholder, is renowned for his management style. It is active in a variety of industries, including broadband, fixed-line telecommunications, e-commerce, information technology, banking, media, and marketing. With 45.621 million users as of March 2021, SoftBank Corporation, its spun-off affiliate and former flagship company is the third-largest wireless provider in Japan.

The second-biggest publicly traded business in Japan after Toyota, SoftBank was placed as the 36th largest public company in the world on the 2017 Forbes Global 2000 list.

The flag of the Kaientai, a naval commerce firm established in 1865, close to the end of the Tokugawa shogunate, by Sakamoto Ryma, served as the inspiration for SoftBank’s emblem.

Despite not belonging to any conventional keiretsu, SoftBank has tight links with Mizuho Financial Group, its main lender.

Quick Stats –

CEO Masayoshi Son
CMO Alexis Contos
Area Served Japan, the UK, the US, South Korea and other countries.
Industry Conglomerate
Market Revenue US$56.832 billion (2020)
Vision The aim of our company is to contribute to people’s happiness through the Information Revolution and become the corporate group needed most by people around the world.
Tagline

 

Marketing Strategy of SoftBank –

Let’s get started with the marketing strategy of SoftBank now that we have a prime understanding of it as a business.

Segmentation, Targeting and Positioning

Segmentation – 

  • Mobile
  • Internet
  • Energy
  • Robot
  • Business

Target Audience – They target audiences from the segments mentioned, all market sectors, and B2B and B2C e-commerce services.

Positioning – SoftBank is positioned as the one leading the way in the digital lifestyle today, tomorrow, and for the next 100 years.

Marketing Campaigns

marketing strategy of softbank - marketing campaign

This programme gets rid of the requirement that you pay for models in 48 instalments, up to 24 instalments (without the down payment), and instalments starting in the 25th month after you apply for the programme.

marketing strategy of softbank - marketing campaign

This campaign offers a discount on the model price if you switch or transfer (MNP/number transfer) from a 3G mobile phone or 3G smartphone to an eligible model.

Time: starting on July 15, 2020, Wednesday

marketing strategy of softbank - marketing campaign

Only for clients aged 5 to 22. You can save up to 21,600 yen (tax included) on the model price when you order a new SoftBank model through the online store.

Period: beginning on November 16, 2022, Wednesday

Social Media Marketing

  • Instagram – 42.1K
  • Facebook – 1.4M
  • LinkedIn – 147K
  • Twitter – 83.8K

SoftBank is most active and followed on Facebook. They mostly post promotional content on their social media handles. 

SEO Strategies

marketing strategy of softbank - ubersuggest seo screenshot

Source – UberSuggest

According to SEO rankings, having fewer than 500 keywords is terrible, more than 1000 keywords are acceptable, and having more than 10,000 keywords would be outstanding. It is clear that SoftBank has 660K+ organic keywords, which is an amazing number. This suggests that Softbank’s digital marketing is accumulating a great deal of knowledge.

The same amount of traffic per month is roughly 8.8M+, which is again grand. Therefore, SoftBank is on the right track; this outcome is the consequence of the impressive effort put into SERP results, and it will continue to expand in this direction. SEO Certification Course makes it easy for you to learn such an amazing skill and get such remarkable results.

Influencer Marketing

In addition to bringing participating celebrities to Cameo’s service, SoftBank will work with Japanese talent agencies and sports organisations to sell the service to users in that country. With regard to the inclusion of talent in their rosters, SoftBank is now in negotiations with HoriPro Inc. and other talent agencies.

Moreover, Softbank supports the Meesho and Glorify apps.

E-Commerce Strategies

The Group offers cutting-edge goods and services in the Distribution segment that quickly adapt to the dynamic market landscape. The Group provides goods and services for business customers that are primarily focused on cloud computing and cutting-edge technology like artificial intelligence (AI). As a manufacturer and distributor, the Group plans and offers products and services for individual customers in a variety of industries, including software, mobile accessories, and IoT products.

Mobile Apps

SoftBank has a mobile app My SoftBank on Google Play Store with 50L+ downloads. 

Concise, practical, and tightly integrated. The app makes it simple to check SoftBank usage fees and date consumption. The Good Design Award for 2021 was given to this app.

This app is not available in India.

Content Marketing Strategies

As for content marketing, SoftBank is active on Social media and along with that, they publish Press Releases, Press Conference materials and News on their official website.

This comes to a conclusion through an elaborate marketing strategy of SoftBank. Let’s summarise what we’ve discovered from the marketing approach below.

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What’s Unique in the Marketing Strategy of SoftBank?

We have seen how SoftBank is garnering more love and support with each passing day thanks to its marketing strategy, and we can see how its expansion is rapidly quickening. User’s needs and expectations are expanding along with the number of users.

Digital marketing today has a big impact on our businesses, as we all know, and it also has an impact on SoftBank. According to our data, the majority of customers buy services online. But the epidemic is also to blame for how much internet marketing has helped firms’ customers perceive their brands.

Since it connects a firm with its clients when they are online and functions across numerous industries, digital marketing is crucial.

Social media marketing and email marketing help link businesses with their target customers through Google’s SEO and PPC programmes. If you want to learn more and develop your skills, look into the 4-Month Digital Marketing Course and 11-Month Digital Marketing Course offered by IIDE.

You can also sign up for one of our free online masterclasses offered by Karan Shah, CEO of IIDE, to learn more about the subject of digital marketing.

We trust that this article on the marketing strategy of SoftBank has given you useful knowledge of the firm’s promotional methods.

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Aditya Shastri

Lead Trainer & Head of Learning & Development at IIDE

Leads the Learning & Development segment at IIDE. He is a Content Marketing Expert and has trained 6000+ students and working professionals on various topics of Digital Marketing. He has been a guest speaker at prominent colleges in India including IIMs......[Read full bio]

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